Well…shit @imjustpeachybabe - Tumblr Blog

Did you know that many gastropods can create a pearl, including terrestrial snails? The difference is nacre which is only found in some species of mollusks and which which gives pearls their beautiful shine. Terrestrial snails occasionally produce very small translucent white pearls which are usually lost. One non-nacre secreting sea snail, the melo melo, produces gorgeous pearls that are extremely prized and rare.

byjove

Conches can also produce pearls.

mrskayathefrog

Paua (also called abalone) can make pearls as well- though they are only half-pearls (called mabel pearls)

derinthescarletpescatarian

Things animals love to make:

mucus

calcified secretions from mucus

digupreaganandkillhimagain

im going crazy you have GOT to decouple romance/amatonormativity and marriage in your mind. you have GOT to understand that marriage is a legal document that protects you from exploitation especially if you are a woman or a stay-at-home anything. it is not some evil unique to heterosexual people. it is a legal document that says 'this is who i want in my hospital room when i die, this is who i want to have my stuff when i die, THIS PERSON OWES ME RECOMPENSE IF THEY KICK ME OUT OF THE HOUSE I LIVE IN"

You are not immune to being taken advantage of by your partner if you are queer. do not wind up homeless because your garbage live-ins name is on the lease and they decided to drop you like hot coals.

elexuscal

Adding to this:

This is why it is not assimilationist for gay/queer people to want to enshrine marriage rights in their country/region

Similarly, this is why polyamorous people are fighting for the right to have their relationships recognised by their states through marriage and/or similar agreements

Oh, and because on top of those aforementioned financial and medical protections, these laws also help you maintain connection to any kids you have and/or raise together!

I would go further and say, this is why we really should be looking to expand some of these rights so that marriage is NOT the only way they should be enshrined. (e.g. Why could I get married tonight to a guy I met this morning, and get him on my health insurance, but I cannot do the same for a sibling?)

leaky-port-nacelle

Remember the fight for same sex marriage was never “we feel left out”, it was “we’re sick and not allowed to see each other. We’re dying and not allowed at the funeral. Someone who kicked me out at 14 just showed up for the first time 24 years later to tell the doctor to pull the plug, and they did.”

Marriage is a legal documentation of rights. Fully agree with prev that those rights should be divested from the concept of monogamy entirely, but for now we have to at least understand what they are

queenerdloser

genuinely i don't think you can decouple the fight for marriage equality in america from the aids epidemic. like. there is a direct and easy to see correlation between how many people were dying of aids in hospitals and their significant others were not allowed to see them, be with them as they were ill and dying, or be told their medical information because they were not in a legally recognized marriage. that made a huge impact on the queer community's outlook and if it's not THE main reason for the push for marriage equality, it is at least one of the top factors.

the spin to rewrite marriage equality as assimilation i think came about because so many people - a lot of cishets but also queers - started treating it as an "endgame" to queer rights - this was more in the late 2000s. and so people started scoffing at it as a genuine step in queer equality or a way to "be like th straights" or w/e because there was this attitude that it was the "easy" step or that it wasn't enough or that it was just some kind of window dressing right to get.